Hi all just registered,i have a major prob with my pride and not so joy,bought this espace two weeks ago got it home,would not start,had a mate look at it,did a check on it and the crank sensor had gone.105 pounds later got it back today now it wont start again.seems as there is no spark, stuffed a allen key up one the ht leads earthed it crankeed it over no spark.pulled low tension wire off same test again no spark.has this got an imboliser? if so hows it work?doors open ok with key fob but there is no alarm fitted is there a special starting seqence am i just being thick or is this espace destined 4 breaking

... bought this espace two weeks ago got it home, would not start, had a mate look at it, did a check on it and the crank sensor had gone. 105 pounds later got it back today now it wont start again. seems as there is no spark, stuffed a allen key up one the ht leads earthed it cranked it over no spark. pulled low tension wire off same test again no spark. has this got an imboliser? if so hows it work? doors open ok with key fob but there is no alarm fitted is there a special starting seqence am i just being thick or is this espace destined...

chas

First, just what Espace have you got? More details please? Age and full VIN would be ideal: VF8...

Second, all Renault immobilisers work like this - when you switch the ignition on, the immobiliser warning light should come on for one second then go out, provided it has switched off. If the immobiliser is still active, the warning light will flash fast continually. So what does yours do? If the immobiliser has not switched off, then there is no point turning the engine over at all - it simply will never start as the electronics are not authorised. (there will be no spark etc.)

There are several different versions of the immobiliser systems, so it depends on just which one is fitted to yours as to how they are switched. For instance, on early ones, the key plip not only unlocks and locks the doors but also dis-arms and arms the immobiliser. So with this type, opening the doors, dis-arms the immobiliser, BUT if you don't turn the ignition on within 20 secs, it will re-set, so you will need to plip the key twice, once to lock/arm and a second time to unlock/dis-arm the immobiliser before you can start the engine. The reason for this re-setting, is that if you accidentally plip the key whilst in range of the car and therefore unlock/dis-arm without realising it, it will automatically re-set after 20 secs and protect the car from being taken.

A second generation system works differently, and this fools a number of owners/users. With this system, the plip lock and unlocking is separate to the immobiliser, and so it doesn't matter whether the remote door locking is working or not. The immobiliser uses a chip in the key that is read by a reader-ring around the ignition switch, so once you put the key in the lock and turn the ignition on, it checks to see if the codes match, and if they do the immobiliser is switched off. So with this system, even if you had to manually open the doors as the remote system had failed, you could still start the car, whereas on the first system I described, if the remote system had failed you couldn't start the car either. However, with both systems the warning light will still tell you if the immobiliser is active or not in the same way - if it fashes fast the system is still active and you won't start the engine.

So before deciding whether the fault is somewhere in the engine electronics, I need to know which immobiliser is fitted and if it is working correctly. Only then can I help further.

Finally, you should have two keys. Have you tried both? If the fault is with the key/immobiliser then sometimes one key goes faulty (sometimes because it has been dropped or damaged in some way but also the batteries can get too low!) but the other will work. If you don't have two keys, you really should get a second, but they are not cheap and may need programming to the car depending on the system fitted.